Maintaining, focus and control, implementing policy and giving direction are the principle purposes of any change governance model. As with corporate governance, the approach must ensure the decisions are made at the right level, by the right people, with the right information and at the right time.

With change, the governance models need to be sensitive to individual power bases and the associated politics, to timing and the sequencing of impacts on the organisation, and capability. The interaction between product lifecycles, project lifecycles, and the dynamics of change means that the governance framework is a layered set of policies, processes, procedures, tools and templates.

The separation of concerns and the close linking together of the decisions and actions are the inspiration behind CITI’s ‘M-Model’. The ‘M’ graphically depicts the progressive and varying levels of governance interaction necessary to ensure the execution and control of the investment process ensuring that business change remains connected to the strategy, while allowing the expertise and capability of the organisation to be brought to bear on its delivery.

The layering and linking of the portfolio, project, product, and change local governance functions and structures are used as a route-map to illustrate who, how and when decisions and their consequences are or should be transmitted through the business and change community.

The model strongly supports the identification and separation of processes and procedures into governance and execution documentation, clearly delineating between decision and action. It also highlights why and how assurance processes and stage gates are so valuable. They are the essential management interventions that connects the cost-driven processes – project delivery – with the management and delivery of value by managed, directed change.